Squeezing O.J. for Answers

In case you missed it on Saturday night, even ESPN was pretty sure O.J. Mayo said he was planning to stay next year.

Today, Mayo spent at least half an hour after practice shooting baskets. Then he met with reporters.

Q: After the game some people thought you said that you were going to stay for next year. Is there anything definitive at this point or is it still up in the air?
A: Next question. It's up in the air. Just signing up for summer school. Next question.
Q: How do you want us to portray that? Is there any particular wording?
A: I'm going to summer school ... I'm [getting together] classes for summer school. Same thing. Nothing too difficult about that answer.

Glad we cleared that one up! That last one was a little garbled on the tape, but you can hear it yourself along with the whole four-minute Q&A session:

As you can tell, Mayo likes to have a little fun with the press. Among his Shaq-esque pearls of wisdom:

Q: What happened the last time you guys played [ASU]?
A: They beat us.
Q: How did it happen?
A: They scored more points.

Glad we cleared that one up, too!

Daniel Hackett gave a preview of Thursday's Pac-10 Tournament game against Arizona State:

We're fighting because we want a ring. We feel like we can beat anybody in this conference, and they do too. It'll be an interesting game and a tough matchup.

If you're watching the polls, USC was just out of the Top 25 this week, landing at 27th in the AP and 28th in the ESPN/USA Today rankings.

In other hoops news, Mayo was named to the All Pac-10 first team. Taj Gibson made the third team and was also named Pac-10 player of the week for his performance against the NorCal schools. Davon Jefferson was a Pac-10 honorable mention, and also grabbed All-Freshman honors along with Mayo (honorable mention to Angelo Johnson). Gibson also made the All-Defense team and Mayo got an honorable mention on that list.